Thirteen first caps fit in four friendlies. Thirteen auditions do not
The Laws of the Game let the United States use eight substitutes in a friendly, so Mauricio Pochettino could cap every uncapped man in his camp before the second match is over. What he cannot hand out is starts. Four matches hold 44 of them, and 15 capped players are in the same squad.
The Laws of the Game allow a national team to use up to eight substitutes in a friendly, and more if both teams agree. Mauricio Pochettino has four friendlies in eleven days. That is 32 appearances off the bench before anyone counts the starting elevens.
He has 13 uncapped players in camp. He could give every one of them a first cap from the bench by the end of the Chile match on Tuesday, with three substitutions still unused.
So the cap is not the scarce thing in this window. The start is.
What the window actually holds#
Four matches, eleven places, 44 starts. That is 3,960 minutes of regulation football to divide among 28 men, and the federation's own position list shows that 15 of the 28 already have senior caps.
Split it evenly and the audition gets small quickly. The four goalkeepers share 360 minutes, which is one match each. The 24 outfield players share 3,600, which is 150 minutes each, less than two full matches across Peru in Orlando on Saturday, Chile in St. Louis on Tuesday, Mexico in Glendale on October 3 and Canada in St. Paul on October 6.
Nobody splits minutes evenly. But the arithmetic says what a first cap is worth here. A 15-minute debut against Peru is a line on a player's record. It is not evidence. A quarter of an hour in one friendly is as small as a sample in this sport gets.
The squad is this young partly by choice and partly by absence. Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Folarin Balogun were not selected. Jeff Carlisle of ESPN reported on September 18 that Pulisic is only now returning to the field for Milan and that McKennie and Balogun are dealing with muscle injuries. The federation has published no injury statement on any of the three. Ricardo Pepi was in the squad and was withdrawn injured on September 20, and Damion Downs replaced him. Downs is now the only capped forward among the five on the list.
What the thirteen bring with them#
The uncapped players did not arrive with the same evidence. Their club league minutes this season, against the minutes their clubs have played:
| Player | Pos | Club | League minutes | Starts | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Schwake | GK | Nashville SC | 2,340 of 2,340 | 26 of 26 | 100.0% |
| Diego Kochen | GK | Lyngby | 810 of 810 | 9 of 9 | 100.0% |
| Julian Hall | F | Red Bull New York | 2,198 of 2,340 | 25 of 26 | 93.9% |
| Brooklyn Raines | M | New England Revolution | 2,126 of 2,340 | 24 of 26 | 90.9% |
| Adri Mehmeti | M | Red Bull New York | 2,046 of 2,340 | 25 of 26 | 87.4% |
| Frankie Westfield | D | Philadelphia Union | 1,883 of 2,340 | 23 of 26 | 80.5% |
| Cole Campbell | F | SV Elversberg | 261 of 360 | 4 of 4 | 72.5% |
| Peyton Miller | D | New England Revolution | 1,694 of 2,340 | 18 of 26 | 72.4% |
| Cavan Sullivan | F | Philadelphia Union | 1,452 of 2,340 | 17 of 26 | 62.1% |
| Justin Ellis | F | Orlando City SC | 1,313 of 2,340 | 16 of 26 | 56.1% |
| Neil Pierre | D | Philadelphia Union | 930 of 2,340 | 10 of 26 | 39.7% |
| Zavier Gozo | M | Crystal Palace | 28 of 450 | 0 of 5 | 6.2% |
| Mathis Albert | M | Borussia Dortmund | 0 of 360 | 0 of 4 | 0.0% |
Ten of the thirteen are at half their club's league minutes or better, and six are above 80 percent. Nine play in MLS, where the season is 26 matches deep. The four in Europe are measured across four to nine matches, so their shares are comparable to the Americans' and their totals are not.
Two numbers stand out. Mathis Albert has not played a Bundesliga minute for Dortmund this season. Zavier Gozo has 28 Premier League minutes for Crystal Palace, none of them as a starter. They are 17 and 19, and they are the two men in camp whose club clocks say nothing about them yet. That does not rule either of them out of a debut. It means a debut would be the first senior evidence anyone has seen of them this season.
The goalkeepers turn the table upside down. Schwake and Kochen have played every minute their clubs have played, and goalkeeping is the position where this camp's minutes are scarcest. Matt Freese has 19 caps and Chris Brady has one. Four men share 360 minutes, and goalkeepers are rarely substituted.
Pierre's line hides something. He did not play in any of the Union's 15 league matches before the World Cup break. He has played in all 11 since, and started 10. His season share describes the spring, not the player who arrived in Atlanta. Carlisle wrote that the center-back depth "isn't nearly what it needs to be" with Tim Ream gone, and that it "leaves the Union's Pierre in prime position to make an impression."
Sullivan, all the way through#
Cavan Sullivan is 16. He turns 17 on September 28, two days after Peru and one day before Chile, according to the league's own player record.
His season line is 24 appearances, 17 starts and seven goals in the Union's 26 league matches. The 62.1 percent share undersells where he is now, because the season has two halves. Before the break he started six of the Union's 15 league matches and scored once, on May 13 at Orlando. Since the Union's first league match after the break, on July 22, he has started all 11 and scored six times, including twice at San Diego on September 13 and once at Sporting Kansas City on September 19.
Carlisle wrote that since MLS resumed after the World Cup, Sullivan has been "arguably the best player in the league not named Lionel Messi." That is a characterization and it is his. The start count is a fact, and it makes the same point more narrowly. The Union have not played a league match since the World Cup without Sullivan in the starting eleven.
Pochettino has said two things about him, both reported by Carlisle. That Sullivan "deserves all the praise that he's getting." And that he "needs to adapt to another level, international competition with international players."
The second sentence is a manager describing a process, and it fits the rule book. It costs Pochettino nothing to bring Sullivan on against Peru. It costs him a start to learn anything.
Where he plays matters too. The federation lists Sullivan as a forward. MLS lists him as a midfielder. The forward list has four uncapped names and Downs, who has come off the bench in every appearance for St. Louis since joining on loan from Southampton and has yet to start.
What to count#
Tyler Adams, who has 58 caps, said on Wednesday, as reported by Lizzy Becherano of ESPN, that there is "less pressure on these young kids to come in and perform immediately and more time to be able to actually develop them."
That is the reading the calendar supports. Most of the thirteen will probably get a cap. The debuts themselves will tell a reader very little.
The number to watch is second starts. There are 44 starts in this window. A player who gets two of them in eleven days is being auditioned. A player who gets 15 minutes against Peru and nothing after it was brought in to see the building.
Sources: U.S. Soccer roster releases of September 17 and September 20, 2026; IFAB Laws of the Game, Law 3; ESPN, Jeff Carlisle, September 18, 2026; ESPN, Lizzy Becherano, September 23, 2026; club league minutes and match records from ESPN's league statistics; MLSsoccer.com player record for Cavan Sullivan.
